The audience was thrown into constant fits of laughter on Thursday night in Levin Ballroom by the hilarious antics of students under the hypnotic spell of Michael C. Anthony. Hypnosis, Anthony explained, is a safe state of extreme relaxation that allows the hypnotized person to be open to suggestion. It only works on those who want to be hypnotized. While in a hypnotized state a person will not do anything that violates his or her own moral code of ethics. Hypnosis can be used for therapeutic purposes such as helping people overcome phobias or stop smoking. Whether or not the whole profession is a fraud is still up for debate, but one thing is true: It makes for one very entertaining show.

Before the main attraction, Anthony warmed up the audience with a card trick. He brought an audience member on stage and had him pick a card out of the deck. Once he placed the card back into the deck without showing the card to the hypnotist, Anthony explained that the object of the trick was for the two of them to race through the deck, competing to find the card first. Much to the audience's enjoyment and the ignorance of the student, Anthony placed the card on his forehead while the boy futilely tried to search for the card before noticing its location.

Next, Anthony invited a group of volunteers to come up to the stage to be hypnotized. Since a slew of students volunteered, Anthony began a series of tests to decide which ones were most receptive to hypnosis. Anthony started by having everyone on stage focus on his hand while he spoke about letting their bodies and minds relax. He had everyone close their eyes and put their hands out in front of them while imagining a heavy dictionary dropped on their left hand. Lo and behold, most of the volunteers' hands started to drop as if weighed down by an object.

Anthony then started the deep relaxation phase. Encouraged to get as comfortable as possible, the volunteers who where standing dropped to the floor, while the sitting volunteers spread out over the chairs and one another. As the volunteers were relaxing, Anthony set the stage for the first hypnotic scenario.

He had volunteers imagine they were in their fifth grade classrooms and he was their teacher. He encouraged them to make faces at him when he turned his back to write on the "chalkboard." He also told them that when they saw a white handkerchief it would be the funniest thing they ever saw while a green handkerchief was the most disgusting thing ever. Sure enough, as he brought the volunteers out of deep relaxation, they acted as if they were in a classroom, making faces and sticking out their tongues when Anthony turned his back. When he pulled a white handkerchief from his pocket all of the volunteers started laughing hysterically. When he took the green handkerchief out of his other pocket, they immediately changed to looks of extreme revulsion, some falling over their chairs to get as far away as possible from the handkerchief. As all of this was occurring, the audience laughed uncontrollably.

In the following scenario, Anthony had the volunteers imagine they were on a beach in the Bahamas. As the imagined temperature rose, many of the volunteers started to wipe imaginary sweat off their faces and some of the boys took off their shirts. He even convinced the volunteers to use their smelly shoes as oxygen masks, breathing in the fragrance of feet. Next, he told the volunteers that when they heard the trigger word "ouch," they would feel a sharp pinch in their rear end and would be convinced their neighbor was the culprit. As soon as Anthony said "ouch" the volunteers winced and jumped up, glaring at the person next to them.

Anthony then decided to pick on individual volunteers. First he hypnotized one volunteer, named Sam, into thinking his name was actually Cha-Cha. Whenever Anthony mispronounced or forgot Sam's new name, "Cha-Cha" became very angry, swearing and yelling at him. Anthony convinced another girl, Bethany, that she would transform into a human seatbelt when she heard the trigger word, "safety." Whenever Anthony said "safety," Bethany threw herself across the laps of the people next to her.

A third volunteer, Lenny, was hypnotized into thinking that the whole show was a sham and that he should ask to go back to his seat. When Anthony moved the microphone stand from the floor to the stage it triggered Lenny to walk back onto stage, steal the microphone and explain the fraud to the audience in his form of Chinese. While most of the audience found this antic hysterical, a few offended students proceeded to walk out at this point. A fourth volunteer, Chris, was triggered to howl like a wolf when he heard the phrase, "full moon." Yet another volunteer was hypnotized into thinking his belt was a snake, casting it off when Anthony made the triggering hissing sound.

Next, Anthony convinced Cha-Cha that he was at a dance and that a broom was actually a very beautiful girl with blond hair and a tight dress. As the song "You Are So Beautiful" started playing, Cha-Cha proceeded to slow dance with the broom while the audience once again erupted into fits of laughter.

Among the final antics was a stage-wide dance party complete with hip-hop, river dancing and disco boogying. Anthony also convinced the volunteers that he was naked and then that the audience was naked in turn. In a perfect end to an already embarrassing display for the volunteers, Anthony hypnotized the volunteers into forgetting their actions as they woke up, only to remember every humiliating moment as they stepped off the stage.